Would you do it? Sounds like a great idea. Especially if that neat little package had a chance to get passed around to a whole lot of fresh new faces who never would have stumbled on to your homepage just sitting still in your neighborhood.

Would you send that traveling representative out into blogoland dressed in tattered wrapping with hastily thrown together content , fuzzy graphics and a boring design?

Hopefully not. Not unless your goal was to actually keep new business  and subscribers away from your site.

Hopefully you would pay just as much attention putting together a professional high quality package to represent you out there as you did your business cards, brochures and other forms of marketing.

You did do that, right? (If you didn’t,  no worries, come see us, we can help you with that)

What would be the simplest way to bundle up a traveling version of your website and send it out the door?

An E-Book is Your Traveling Website

When you think about it, an E-book is exactly that. A traveling representation of your website and you, sent out into the world to share your story and tell everyone who you are, what you stand for and what you look like.

People are going to form an opinion about you based on it. When they look at your cover they are going to consciously or unconsciously register a decision about who you and your business are.  They will decide if they think you have taste, or perhaps are cheap, or if you are a person who settles for nothing less then quality, or you slap things together willy-nilly, or that you care a great deal…or maybe you just don’t give a damn.

And by the way? They make this decision whether they buy the book or not. Every single person who looks at your book cover is registering something about you and your style. You’ve sent out your calling card.

Did you use affiliates? That’s wonderful! All the more places for your calling card to be seen. Please. Do yourself a favor. Take the time to make a good impression.

You Can’t Always Judge a Book By it’s Cover

Let’s say you passed the first test. You made a decent to great impression with your cover and you got the public  interested enough to want to open the cover and look under the hood.  Congratulations!

Mission accomplished?  Not a chance. Would you be satisfied if that same public came to your website, took a look at your homepage, clicked on one quick link and then buzzed away? NO! Not if you knew what was good for business you wouldn’t.

You want to engage them, grab their attention on the first page, draw them in, get them to settle in to a comfortable armchair and not come out again until the last page is turned and they are desperate for more.

Does your book do that? Do you know? How do you know? Did you ask? (Your mother doesn’t count. Neither does your significant other) It wouldn’t hurt to get a professional opinion.

There are two very important aspects of drawing in the reader between the pages of a book.

Content, of course, is always King and a book with poorly written content is doomed from the start. However there is a great deal of difference between disastrous content and content that may need a few rewrites, a little tweaking and an occasional bit of inspiration. Even the greatest writers benefit from a second pair of eyes and professional editing. Did you?

The King of Content  goes nowhere without his Queen by his side, however, and to neglect her is to provide your reader with a glaringly amateur and uncomfortable reading experience. She is the Queen of layout, typsetting and design.  From adding in clear crisp graphics to typesetting and formatting, it is difficult to produce a finished professional product without a skilled designer and quality programs at your disposal. Can it be done? Sure. Be prepared for a lot of blood, sweat and tears. (And cursing. I’m told lots of cursing. That’s what I’ve heard.)

If You Can’t Say Something Nice, Don’t Say Anything at All

There’s a big craze out there for everyone to write their E-books right now. It’s a nice bandwagon to want to jump on to. Let’s face it, we’re all writers, or many of us.  The lure to want to see our name in print is very tempting and when everybody else is doing it…well, as Mama used to say-that doesn’t necessarily mean we should be jumping off that bridge too.

The more important point to be holding on to is that we need to represent ourselves with quality. That everything we send out with our name on it needs to be a representation of who we are, what we stand for and the level of expectations that our clients can expect to receive from our businesses. If you aren’t in a position to send out that level of quality in your E-book yet…maybe its not time to jump off that bridge.

Suckers for Packaging

How many times have you gone into a book store and bought a book simply because you liked the cover? C’mon, admit it, you know you’ve done it a million times. I know I have.  Show me a great cover and right away my mind thinks “Ooo…pretty – must be a good read! Must have!”

*BUZZZ* Wrong. Nine times out of ten, it wasn’t a good read and I was sorry I bought it. But damn, that cover was purdy!

Now, think about all the times you passed up a book because you were totally turned off by the outer packaging. Bet you can count the number of times on one hand that you actually bought one of those, huh?

Whether you like it or not, if you want your ebook to sell, it’s got to look good. Sounds pretty shallow, doesn’t it? But Deb! It’s not all about looks! What’s underneath is what matters most!

That may be so, or at least we’d like to think so. Maybe in a perfect world this is the norm. Not in this world.

A Swan in My Email

Last week I wrote about a special collaborative effort between Sirius, Lori Hoeck and Betsy Wuebker. Today, The Narcissist: A User’s Guide is taking flight.

Like a house deemed a “fixer-upper”, Lori’s book had fantastic content. I really felt she and Betsy both put their hearts and souls into it. They wanted this to work, to be big – or at the very least to help just one person.

Well, they did. They helped me. I believed in it too, and knew all the book needed was one tiny push more. It needed a little help breaking out of that shell and shedding its baby feathers. There was a swan in there somewhere and I was determined to help them find it.

Where’s Your Swan?

Do you have a project you believe in? I’m sure you do. The beautiful thing about being so connected in this day and age is it’s not difficult to find someone to partner up with. You have one set of skills you rock at, someone else has another. If you can find the common ground that will help you both get you to where you want to be, there’s nothing wrong with taking a chance to build something good.

Lori and Betsy’s book has grown into something that exceeded their expectations and Sirius is proud to be a part of that. Go on over and get your copy now, you’ll be glad you did.

Throwing a Party and Nobody Comes.

We’ve all had that dreaded fear. You plan and plan for a party, you buy the groceries, you send out the invitations and you are terrified that nobody is going to show up. You can just tell…You’ll be stuck in an empty house filled with fading balloons and too much food. Sound familiar?

How can you be sure your E-book release party isn’t going to meet with the same fate?

Hire a Party Planner

Otherwise known as getting a sound, reliable marketing plan and advice. You’ve spent far too much time, energy and money to create a high quality product to send it out on a whisper and a prayer. You need a step-by-step easy plan that can systematically take you from book completion to the hands of your readers.

Marketing the Free Book

Everybody is familiar with marketing plans for e-books that sell. We have all seen huge release campaigns that go on for up to a month or longer, building up suspense until it feels like the second coming. We’ve gotten letters in our e-mail box with pre-release notices that tell us we are special and we can buy the product ahead of time and get it for a discount. We’ve seen urgency tactics- Buy now or the price will go up! Time sensitive tactics-Hurry or this product is going away until next year! Affiliate programs that promise to give us a piece of the financial pie. And they all work. Marketers can point to studies and graphs that pinpoint a rise in sales when these marketing strategies are used.

But you aren’t selling anything. It isn’t time sensitive. There is no financial pie to share with affiliates. And you can’t really discount something cheaper then free.

So what does that leave?

Enthusiasm Sells

You wrote your book for a reason. You wrote it for a particular audience and you had a particular message you wanted to share and get out to the world. Do you remember how excited you were when you first thought of the idea? Share that enthusiasm.  Tell your story. Guest post. Write about it, build the excitement. Fan the flames, give it to a few fans, let them spread the fire…plan the party and invite a few more guests…tell the story some more, ask help to share your story and spread the tale. Plan a release date and make sure all the party guests you wrote it for know about the party. Never underestimate the power of referrals, enthusiasm and carefully targeting the right audience.

Need more help strategically getting the word out about your E-book party?

Let us know. We love planning parties.

It all started when Wendi and I decided to make February Ebook Month on Sirius. I think it was Wendi who pointed out to me that there was this great ebook called Think Like a Black Belt. I had to go check it out. Anything that has to do with martial arts and how people are using it in blogs on the web is going to grab my attention.

I started poking around the site. One series of posts in particular snagged my attention. The information hit home and then some. I had to contact Lori and let her know how much her words meant to me.

Well as the saying goes, strangers are just friends you haven’t met yet. We started corresponding and somewhere along the line we started discussing ebooks. Lori mentioned she had a book ready to release and she sent it to me. I took one look at it and shook my head.

The content was genius. The information solid and from what I could see, had the potential to help so many people.

The design? Not so much.

Paying It Forward

“It would be a sin to let this book go out this way.” Yes, I actually said that. Not to Lori. I said it to the cat sitting in front of my monitor, but judging by the look on his face, he agreed too. I decided to take a chance and email Lori back with a proposition: In exchange for a much needed portfolio piece Sirius would design and help her market her ebook.

The thing was, Lori and Betsy were going to release the book as a freebie. Like so many ebook authors out there, justifying the cost of having an ebook professionally designed just didn’t fit. It’s an age old dilemma; you want to put your best foot forward, so you do what you can even though you know you won’t be making anything back in return.

Or will you?

Embrace The Big Picture

One thing I’ve learned over the last few months is when you approach people in the right way many of them are extremely generous. Money isn’t the only currency. Many of us are very skilled service providers. Many of us have wonderful audiences and communities. We also have our own networks we do business with. When you take that into consideration and view it as collateral, you’ve got something amazing.

You know why businesses offer freebies? Because everyone loves FREE. And since people love FREE, it’s one of the simplest methods to get your foot in the door. Not everyone will buy or buy right away, but eventually, they just might. Or they might remember the freebie and refer your service or product out to someone else who needs it.

Once that happens, then you start to make money. Your freebies are an investment in your business and yourself. Whether it’s free samples at Costco on a Saturday morning or a daily blog article, you’re giving the world a taste of what you’ve got to offer.

Sure in the present it may seem like a lot of work and you may be asking yourself, “Why am I doing all this for nothing?” Truth is people, it’s not for nothing. None of it is for nothing. Every word, every shape, everything you do counts for something in the long run and brings you closer to the Big Picture.

Know When to Hold ‘em, Know When to Fold ‘em

Living here in Las Vegas, the gambling capital of the world, many of my friends are surprised to hear I don’t go out gambling every night. Many of us locals are like this. I can count the number of times I’ve gone to the casino with the intent of dropping a few bucks at Black Jack on one hand. I can also say that I’ve never walked away from those tables without something left in my pocket.

The win and lose over the course of a couple hands goes back and forth between me and the dealer for a while. I watch the tourists get caught up in the thrill of winning, only to get sloppy and start losing it all. The trick is to keep your head and don’t get greedy. Set a limit, a goal and stick to it.

The same thing goes with your “freemiums”. Go ahead and place your bet and put your best work on the table. Treat that freemium like it was actually going to make you money (why? Because it is). Everything you do with this is the test run for the next product you put out that you’re actually going to sell.

When you’re doing a campaign like this you’re giving the public a taste of what you’ve got. You’re making them hungry for more. If they see quality from you once and it’s free, the public starts to think, “Damn, if this is free and it’s this good, sure I’ll pay for what they’re selling!”

Carved In Stone

Because the Sirius Team took a chance and offered our best to Lori and Betsy, they now have the golden opportunity to kick ass in the future with the rest of their products. And what do we get out of it? A chance to show the world that we are as good as we know we are.

No one in Sirius is a newcomer to business on the web. We’ve each made our marks in our own ways. But the entity of Sirius Graphix itself is an unknown. We have to do our time in the trenches like everyone else and none of us are afraid to dig into the dirt and get our hands dirty.

We also believe in helping others. This philosophy is what forged a new relationship with Lori, Betsy and many other clients. This is how business is done in this new millennium. It’s becoming more personal, more of a give and take rather than a constant take driven by money alone.

Helping Those Who Help Themselves

Last week I announced that for the month of February we’ll be offering 10% off all of our ebook services to help get you started. Well, we’re going to take that a step further and do something a little radical.

Once a month we’re going to be on the look out for a project like Lori and Betsy’s where the authors could use a boost up to get them started – free of charge.

This is not a contest. There will be no push for entries, nor do we want a flood of emails with people just looking for a hand-out. We’ll be watching and reading. We’ll be looking for people who have serious drive and are honestly trying to make it on their own. We’re not here to do all the work for you and hand it to you on a silver platter by any means.

If you’ve hit a wall with your ebook and just can’t seem to break through, go ahead and contact us with your story and a sample of your book.  We’re more than happy to give you a free assessment of that book and let you know what can be done to improve it.

And if we think the book and you could use a boost, then we may just show up on your doorstep one month ready to kick your butt into gear and get your project out there.

We’re the best and we know it. We want the world to know that you’re the best too. There’s plenty of success to go around for everyone.

The Happy Ending

Next week, Lori and Betsy will be releasing their new ebook. It’s free and it’s beautiful. As Betsy said:

Did I already say what a staggering difference if you put the two versions (our pitiful one and your glorious one) up against each other?  It’s like our book went to Glamour Shots!!!!

Not only does it look great, but the content is fantastic. Tune in next week to find out more. You know you want to.

And after all of that, it is finally finished and the time has come to put that baby out on the market and sell it for…FREE? You’ve got to be kidding!!!

Yet, look around. It’s happening everywhere. All around the Net, there are Free E-books sprouting up like dandelions in spring. And while the old adage “Just because everyone else is doing it doesn’t make it right” is absolutely true, (your mother DID tell you that, right?) It is also true that when the band is playing loud and clear it is time to sit up and listen and take a closer look at what is going on.

Why Free?

What makes FREE so valuable to bloggers and business that everyone is doing it in droves? Do you need a free E-book? Is the bandwagon passing you by? Do you need to jump on? IS it OK to charge for your E-book or does that just make you look greedy when everyone else seems to be giving away all the information for free?

In the next few weeks we are going to be breaking down some thoughts and questions about e-books in more detail and if you have perplexing E-book puzzles percolating in your mind drop us a line and we will address them as well.

For today, let’s just tackle one thing at a time.

The Value of giving it all away for free.

Why would a sane, sensible business person invest blood, sweat, tears and CASH to give away something that won’t make them a dime? The answer is that they don’t. They are looking at their E-book as one of a few different  marketing tactics- all geared toward making them income in a variety of different ways. The difference is that while nobody may be handing them over a single dollar, smart business people realize that you can’t always draw a straight line from product to cash. Sometimes that dollar needs to go around the bend.

We are going to break down just one of the ways a FREE E-book can bring more income into a business.

The Loss Leader Strategy

In it’s simplest terms a Loss Leader is a service or product that a company offers for free or at a no-profitable price to bring in new customers ( or greater numbers of existing customers) and hopefully then sell  other products at a greater profit.

Anyone who has ever been to a “great sale” at a retail store has been party to a Loss Leader Strategy.  They know that if they can get you in the door to buy the unbelievable bargain jeans at $9.99 you will also likely walk out with the $100 designer boots as well (and why not, since you saved SO MUCH on the jeans!) And since you feel as if you got a great deal, you may be feeling more generous in return. That is never bad for business. If they can secure customer loyalty and insure future sales as well, the discount price of those jeans just became worth every penny.

E-books as a Loss Leader

E-books can be a great tool for a Loss Leader Strategy of a blog or on-line business if you are trying to achieve any of the following goals.

• Gain readership credibility as an expert in your field
• Secure customer loyalty so they are more likely to purchase paid content
• Generating marketing attention and potential subscribers outside of your own website
• Generate a subscriber list for future promotions and sales.

Quality is King or…Give Away Your Best Foot

There is a potential downside to giving away the farm however. Your Loss Leader is your calling card. It’s the front door of your home, the backdoor into your business. What you have given away for free is the expectation that the client now carries with them and part of the reputation or branding that you have created for your business. There is always a temptation to think that since you are giving something away for free that it doesn’t have to be that good, or you can save your best for the clients who PAY for it. While it’s true that those who pay should get a bigger slice of the pie, make sure the TASTE they get in your free version leaves them craving everything you’ve got, not thinking they just took a bite of yesterday’s leftovers.

So give it away? Sure. It could be worth every penny you spend. Just be sure the client is getting more then they ever expected too. WOW them. Excite them. Give them a gift that surprises them with quality and value and watch what it will give you back in return.

One of my favorite things about New Years is the Best and Worst lists that are popping up all over. Best and worst technology, best and worst styles, best and worst blogs . . . they’re everywhere!

The great thing about these kinds of lists is that each one can teach you a lot about your field of interest. Take something you’re interested, like movies, and you look at it closely. You see what worked and what didn’t, what went wrong and what went right.

Then you learn from your mistakes and get back out there.

Why We Have to Check Our Rearview Every Six Seconds

Keeping an eye on what’s behind you is the best way to shape a brighter future. If you charge forward blindly, you’re bound to make mistakes you’ve made before.  And there’s nothing more embarrassing than that, right?

The smart person—be they writer, businessperson, chef, student, or blogger—keeps his mind on the future by learning from the past. We’re always moving forward. It’s unavoidable. It’s why we’re born with eyes on the front of our heads instead of the back.

We can make decisions that lead us one way or another, but we can’t  choose where we’ll go until we can learn from where we’ve been.

Blogs: A Thing of the Past?

Even if that header just made you panic (or cheer), don’t go deleting your website just yet. Blogs aren’t going anywhere. In the fast-paced culture of today’s internet, you must be on top of daily updates to stay in touch. Blogs keep you informed and provide you with a daily dose of knowledge, wisdom, and humor. Good stuff!

They’re kinda like journals. They hold pithy insights and give you a tablespoon of intellectual medicine to hold you over until the next dose. A thousand lessons go into each post, from writing to responding to answering comments, and whether or not you enjoyed it, each article you wrote made the next one a better representation of who you are.

In the long run, however, blogs are transient. Articles are posted today and replaced tomorrow. All the musing and planning and writing and editing that went into the post is gone, gone, gone, banished to the dark jungles of the Archives page, leaving just the memories to spur you on.

Is the work you put into your blog always doomed to be wasted the day after the article is posted?

It Doesn’t Have to Be That Way!

Most published authors force themselves to write every single day. Never mind the hair-pulling, the tears, the wasted hours of staring mindlessly at the wall while waiting for inspiration. They set a time limit or a wordcount, and they don’t get up from their desk until they reach it.

Does blogging ever feel that way?

Consider this: What if each article in your blog was really a chapter in a book? What if every word you’ve written for your website over the past months or years is part of a larger project that you didn’t know you were working on?

Consider the Ebook

You’ve seen them around, I’m sure. These days a business can hardly call itself legitimate without the offer of a downloadable ebook. And why not? Good ebooks are the treasure chests of the internet world. The knowledge, insight, and lessons of ten, twenty, or a hundred blog posts wrapped up in one easy bundle.

They’re comprehensive, cheap, and easy to transport. A world of knowledge at your fingertips. Searchable, easily copied, immediately delivered, and a low-cost investment. Did you know that getting published was a possibility for your future?

So what’s your excuse?

You Choose Your Future

Don’t dwell in the past. Stewing in what was leaves you carsick, dizzy, and vertigo-ridden for the journey ahead. Look forward, but never forget that life gives you rearview mirrors for a reason.

Start your new year by looking back—to old blog posts, to that half-finished story you tucked away and forgot, to that great idea for a how-to manual that you outlined and never actually wrote. Look back, and then take a step forward and see where your past can take you.

And don’t forget that Sirius would love to come along for the ride.